This weekend I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a wedding. So while I’m here, it’s time to visit the club well regarded by the locals, Zouk Club.

Line up to the club (11PM)

Saturdays @ Zouk Nightclub, KL, Malaysia

Zouk Club is the sister / child club of the original Zouk Club in Singapore (apparently it has lost a bit of its glam with the Singaporean locals compared to newer establishments, but here in KL it still is as popular as ever.)

Essentials:

Opening Hours:
Club: 10:00PM? – 3AM. The 3AM shutdown was only enforced for Zouk this year. It was enforced by the government for public safety reasons (also other clubs close here at 3AM so you’re not missing out).

Dress Code / Door Policy: The Legal age is 21 here, however only the Zouk (main room) of the club is open for 21 year olds. All other areas require patrons to be 23 years or older. This is probably to target more of the working class crowd. Thank god I am no longer a teenager. I suppose its also better to stop the children from drinking from an early age.

Dress code – casual is okay but to use the upstairs Aristo room and Terrace Garden, you must be dressed sharp (collared shirt, dress shoes at a minimum is advised)

Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Something like 45 Ringgit (approx $15AUD at the time of writing) for the guys. Girls get cheaper entry or free entry.

Guestlist: Contact the Facebook page for details

Cloak Room: I don’t remember seeing any cloak rooms

Tonight:
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 3:00AM

Outside Line: At 10:30PM there were not excited punters lining up. It was empty – we strolled in, and the cigarette/other company promo girls at the front were all over us like they have never seen a customer before. The line started getting longer at 11:30PM and by midnight the line was pretty long, perhaps a 15 minute wait to get in.

Inside/Atmosphere:
Zouk is split in primarily three large dance rooms and three smaller dance rooms with associated drinking areas. Most of these rooms focus on seating and drinking with relatively small dancefloor areas:

1. Zouk / Pleasure Dome Area. This is the primary room for Zouk Club. All ages above 21 are welcome here. Large room with main dancefloor and second balcony level. Lounges around the walls. LED lights / screens above along the balcony looking down on the floor. Quite a darker, club atmosphere

2. Phuture Room: Also a two level balcony setup. Big projection wall on the left for video clips to be played. Lounges/VIP areas around the walls and above on the balcony. Little stick out dance areas for attention whores as well. Bar in the back. Dancefloor to hold about 40-50 people. A more “friendly” lighting scenario where its lighter.

3. Velvet: A louder two tiered room. Lower tier upon walking in is just a bar with carpeted floor and tables, chairs for people to mingle. Dark lighting. Upper tier is also relatively medium-dark lit dancefloor, with many VIP/reserved bottle service tables around. Also podiums around the immediate vicinity of the dancefloor, closely guarded by security. I jumped up on the podium and started shuffling, but security didn’t like it and pulled me off. It’s loud, and I think much more people were in this room than that of the Phuture Room. By peak of the night (midnight-2:30AM), this room had literally no moving space. If you got caught up in the dancefloor it was almost impossible to get out.

Velvet Room – random podium clubbing

4. Aristo and Roof Garden: Appeared to be a more relaxed room, and I would guess one of the last rooms to get full of people. This was the last room to have music setup and was one of the first rooms to close when the place started to close up. Don’t bother going to this room unless you’re the quiet or seductive type.

5. Barsonic Room: A smaller, intimate room but still blurting out some tunes. Didn’t get to spend time in here sadly.

6. Terrace Bar: It’s just an outdoor bar to take a break from it all or have a ciggie.

Bar Prices / Line: (
Bottle service (per bottle) is about 750 ringgit ($250AUD) which is so overpriced but, everyone seems to go for it. If you don’t finish your bottle, not to worry – you can give the bottle back to the bar, and they will hold the bottle for you, so that next time you come back, you can finish the bottle. I think that’s great. There was also a promo of 2 bottle of Johnny Walker for 736(nett)

– Since everybody in the place has bottle service, people are all huddled in their small groups, with a bottle on their table or a bottle in their hands. Nobody really needs individual drinks at the bar, leaving the bartenders with really not much to do the whole time. So expect a big surprised or confused look on the bartenders face when you order a drink rather than a bottle.

Food

There is food served here. Finger food is available in all rooms at RM10 each, from 9PM to 3AM. Chicken Wings, Calamari Rings, Spicy Squid Head, Fish Fingers, Deep Fried Beaded Prawns and Nachos are on the menu.

Music Style:
Phuture room: Mostly RnB/Hip Hop. Typical stuff you would hear in an Asian club in Austrlia
Velvet Room: More house style
Zouk Room / Pleasure Dome: Main room for guest DJ’s. Most DJs that appear are from the house genre. Didn’t spend any time in here tonight

Crowd:
Almost entirely a Malaysian born Chinese crowd. Quite good looking as well. There are also some Asians from overseas as well, including Australia and England that I met. You can’t tell until you hear their accent. I never saw any of these glammed up Asians on the streets, and now suddenly they have appeared to this club. Because of age restrictions, these are mostly guys in their mid to late 20’s. Somewhat friendly if you talk to them. Because everyone here gets bottle service, everyone is huddled around their own bottle, sipping away and chatting around. Nobody really moves around here. People were here for birthdays or just hanging out because there isn’t really any other place to go to in KL.

Ratio:
Quite a fair ratio through the peak hours of the night (2 guys: 1 girl), but as with most other clubs, it does get bit sausagey right at the beginning and end of the nights.

Entertainment:
– Podium dancers, free giveaways right as you walk into the club as well (We got some free lighters, weird metal reusable ice cubes and got to try some sugar gastronomy thing)

Video:
Walkthrough of all 6 areas of the club (which takes up a good 4 minutes) with the rest of the video being a music / crowd timelapse of mostly the Phuture Room.

My own nightMet some drunk girl and her brother who was a doctor and well, we just hung out and drank heaps. Met some other guy who was here for his first time clubbing. The poor guy. He was standing there the whole time not doing much, but I did make him drink his whole bottle, lol. Actually a lot of the time I was just cheering random people in the place. It was a very merry mood throughout. I just stayed away from the corner where all the gangster looking folk were.

Upon Departure

We remained until the end, which was 3AM. (As of Jan 2013 the club no longer closes at super later hours – might be government regulation)

Final Thoughts & Recommendation

If you find yourself in KL, this is definitely a place to go to if you want a bit of a proper nightclub experience. Didn’t really have any issues tonight. Caters for all crowds, music to suit whatever you’re into, multiple rooms – its pretty good. Don’t come in before midnight as it is generally dead before then.

3 Responses to Saturdays @ Zouk Club, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Zouk is definitely the place to be, Thursday nights are the best though.. simply because it’s Ladies’ Night and when I was there, there were just girls everywhere HAHA. Fridays would be best switching up between Phuture and Velvet, but the main difference is Phuture is more Top 40s music whereas Velvet pumps out crazy EDM (and I mean all kinds of EDM genres), my favourite spot to be!

First time visit to zouk club it can say 4 out of 10 ratings..velvet was good but one thing I notice none of them was professional bartender there most exciting things is that club security serving drinks to customers..according to Indian top most clubs its just nothing may be entry fee/ cover charge is cheap compare to Indian clubs…and must say music and drinks price is not satisfying…..sorry its from my point of view.